Hankins' home on Nejecho Drive in Brick has sustained further water damage after Wednesday night's nor'easter. / Staff Photo: Michelle Gladden

The small Nejecho Drive community is being vigilant in their community watch efforts to protect Hurricane Sandy damaged homes from looters. / Staff Photo: Michelle Gladden

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BRICK — Hurricane Sandy had already caused April and Vernon Hankins to evacuate in the middle of the night, uprooted a near 100-year-old tree in the yard, flooded the house they’ve called home for more than 25 years, and left the family without power, heat and hot water when another mandatory evacuation notice came.

“It didn’t come as a surprise,” son David, 23, said of the 6 p.m. evacuation order Tuesday. “We kind of expected it because there really is no more barrier island left.”

The family lives in the Nejecho Beach section of Brick, just more than a mile away from the barrier island.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it and I’ve lived here my whole life,” April Hankins said Thursday just after the evacuation notice was lifted at 3 p.m. “We used to have a 5-hour delay before the flood reached us. Now (after Sandy), there is none.”

Lt. Ron Dougard of the Brick police said the area of evacuation totaled 10,000 people, though authorities did not know how many left. Many people drove out and found shelter with family and friends, he said. There were not many people on the evacuation buses and only 20 people sought shelter at Veterans Elementary School on Hendrickson Avenue, Dougard said.

The Hankins family managed to stay together through Hurricane Sandy, but Wednesday’s nor’easter forced them to split.

“This is David’s home right now, the backpack,” April Hankins said. “He will go up the street and live at a friend’s home because he works at a marina down the street. So, he’s been displaced. The three of us now have been split up.”

The couple is staying with friends in Point Pleasant Beach.

“We’re pretty speechless,” said David Hankins, who stayed behind with the family dogs during Hurricane Sandy’s worst moments.

Within 20 minutes of the ocean’s breach, David said there was a foot of water in their home.

April and Vernon Hankins were rescued by members of the Army National Guard near 3:30 a.m. during the hurricane and taken to the Pioneer Hose Fire Co. on Drum Point Road. A family member picked them up at 7 a.m. and they immediately returned to their house.

Since then, the family has remained in the home, living without the basics and camping out in a refurbished attic they call their base camp. The entrance is shielded by plastic sheaths.

“We go to bed early and we get up early because it gets dark so early,” April Hankins said. “It’s like we’re living in pioneer times.”

By day, the three have worked to dry out the house, remove soaked sheet rock to keep mold at bay, protect valuables from looters, and salvage what they can.

“It will take us six months to get back to normalcy,” David said, referring to the permits and inspections they will need.

The house is barren, and remains cold and damp. The kitchen is gutted, there’s almost no furniture. Two of the family’s cars have been destroyed because of flooding.